Sleepingdog – Your Eyes

I’m a bit of a sucker for a haunting female vocal (must be my Pale Saints, Cocteau, Sundays upbringing) so it didn’t take very long before I was under the spell of Sleepingdog’s Chantal Acda. I’m hearing very early career Sinead O’Connor (and believe me this is a good thing) in her impassioned delivery. It really is tearful stuff and a lot of the credit must go to Adam Wiltzie’s sparse Eno-esque arrangements which illuminate rather than compete with the chanteuse. The duo’s sophomore ‘Polar Bear’ is out next month and ‘Your Eyes’ is a magnetic appetizer. Acda is from the Netherlands, lives in Belgium and her songwriting is informed by the dramatic topography/legends of Iceland. A very European creation then but something which should become a worldwide phenomenon. KD